Ginseng’s was named “sam (蔘)“ during the Korean ancient times where the derivation of the word and the period where the word was used remain unknown. However, it was written as “sam (蔘)” in several ancient medical books of Korea such as “Dong-ui-bo-gam”, “Je-joong-shin-pyeon” and “Bang-yap-hap-pyeon”. Therefore, It’s known that the word “sam (蔘)” was used as the name of ginseng during that time and even until recently, the term is still use by wild ginseng harvester.
The word “人 (gin)” of Korean ginseng (人蔘) is derived from Chinese character which means human as the root of ginseng resembles the shape of human. Whereby the Chinese character of Korean ginseng root is “蔘 (seng)” while other species of ginseng that doesn’t resemble the shape of human is written as “參”.
There are 6~7 species of ginseng became known in the world which are economically grown and distributed in the international market in Asia Far East region begin with Korea, China, etc. Which include, Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A.Meyer), American ginseng (Panax Quinquefolius L ) that grow in America and Canada, and Notoginseng (Panaxnotoginseng FH. Chen) that grows in southern China.
American ginseng, Notoginseng and Japanese ginseng do not belong to the same species as Korean ginseng and also do not use the word “人” or “human” as only Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A.Meyer) uses the word “人” and is called “人蔘” or”ginseng”